As you all should know - the Expo did start and I am a proud member of the gang with the greencard (by greencard I mean the green participant-card). This card allows me to walk through the staff entrance, stand longer in line than visitors and thanks to my caucasian look it allows me to enter the American and Canadian Pavilion without standing in line. The German Pavilion is all about content, art and cities in balance and balancity (self explanatory not a huge difference to the second last point). There are famous products, brands, all the states of the Federal Republic of Germany and all the way through - Jens and Yanyan, a couple that is to be seen throughout the pavilion and explains and introduces their cultures to each other. I'm one out of 5 Jens' and it's fun so far. In the final room the visitors (justice isn't absent, cause in front of the German Pavilion they have to wait longer than me) can see Jens and Yanyan in persona and watch a show in which they can interact with a 1,25t ball that hangs from the ceiling and shows movies with it's 400 LEDs. Fun! And I am part of it. The U.S. of A. uses a different approach they lead visitors through 3 cinemas that show (perfectly done) videos. First video is Americans trying to speak Chinese. They fail in a cute way and get better and better and gather all the sympathies that a 5 minute video could gather - there's also Kobe Bryant and Tony Hawk and you enter with a warmhearted the second cinema. There are kids, Hilary Clinton, kids, teacher, people from Pepsi, people from GE, kids and Obama. The kids do what they can do best: being cute and come up with boundless, funny and innovative ideas. We should learn from the kids (true story - I consider myself one of them) and Obama is happy if the Chinese and there families come to visit the U.S. of A. Third cinema starts with a funny American guy that speaks a good Chinese and jokes around. An inspirational and well done (actually - again perfectly) video starts and people should make there cities greener. I left with the impression that Americans love cinemas and are perfect in presenting, filming and put on 5 minute shorts. Nice, but I would have loved to have a bit more content. My future homecountry - Canada did also a good job and all the videos, installations and especially the huge screen with slowly changing scenes of Canadian cities, landscapes and streets came over me like a warm summer rain and I left with excitement and the impression that the Pavilion was indeed pretty small (it didn't look like that from the outside) and Canadians have people dressed like beef-eaters with panda masks and clown make-up that you can have pictures with and there colorful plastic guns are only for show. More from the Expo later, now I'm getting people to shout at a huge installation that does unexpected things.

for my fellow German-only friends:

Ich hatte heute zum ersten Mal die Gelegenheit mir ein paar Pavilions der Expo anzuschauen. Bisher muss ich jeden morgen laenger anstehen, als das Besucher der Expo muessen - macht Sinn, denn ich denke die Pavilions starten mit ihren Shows, Imbissbuden und Shops auch ohne Personal. Im amerikanischen Pavilion sieht man sich 3 Filme an - Amerikaner die versuchen Chinesisch zu sprechen (sehr sympathisch), Kinder, deren Ideen, Obama und amerikanische Firmen die, die grenzenlose Kreativitaet der Kinder einzufangen versuchen und ein Video ueber ein Maedchen, dass den Hinterhof in eine Gartenoase verwandeln moechte. Alles auf Hollywoodniveau (ist untertrieben) nein, wirklich perfekt inszeniert, gefilmt und produziert. Ich haette mir gerne mehr Inhalt gewuenscht, aber was geboten wurde war perfekt. Mein zukuenftiges Heimatland (Kanada) hat schwer gepunktet - kreative Installationen und ein Riesenbildschirm der Szenen, Stadtreiben und LAndschaftsbilder Kanadas visualisiert. Ich ging mit Gaensehaut raus und vielleicht konnte man das Fragezeichen ueber meinem Kopf sehen. Denn was machen die Bobbys mit Pandamasken, Clownschminke, bunten Plastikgewehren im kanadischen Pavilion? Ich lass mir das mal erklaeren. Die U.S. of A. kann also eines: Filme und Kanada kann tolle Installationen und der deutsche Pavilion strotzt nur so von Eindruecken, Kunst, Jenses und Yanyans und mir.

As excuse for mistakes in grammar and writing - I am the one to blame. I write without double-check and straight from my heart - this explains my distinctive writing style. If something is completely incorrect - feel free to tell me and comment.